Q. You were part of the Star Club at the Nagoya City Science Museum when you were in elementary school. Were you interested in outer space when you were a child?
Not exactly. I just knew a few things about the night sky, like what the winter and spring constellations are, or that you can see the Southern Cross if you go to the southern hemisphere. Every month, when they changed the planetarium’s program, I went with my friends to go see it, but it wasn’t that I was obsessed with the planetarium or space. More than that, what I was interested in was eating the delicious curry hot dogs they sold at the science museum. Astronomy wasn’t such a big thing to me as a young boy.
But after NASA launched Voyager [in 1977], I developed an interest in space exploration, and I somehow learned the current location of different objects in space and where they were going. I’m still very much interested in what we’re doing in space, and I occasionally get excited to read a newspaper article about photos from the surface of Mars or what outer space is really like. Q. What do you like about space? When I was a kid in the 1960s, people had big dreams about space, exemplified by films like 2001: A Space Odyssey. When I was in elementary school, I thought that in the early 21st century humans would at least be able to travel beyond our atmosphere, and I honestly believed that we might have a colony on the moon. That’s because there were lots of comics and sci-fi entertainment about that kind of thing. But as the 21st century approached, I felt that we hadn’t gone nearly that far, and that mankind’s adventures in space were just beginning.
Now that we are conducting experiments on the International Space Station and sending probes to various planets, we are approaching the dreams I had in childhood. However, if we take the conversation a step further and think about the fact that radio waves from Earth take 17 minutes even to reach Itokawa, we realize that it’s impossible for us even to imagine how distant the farthest reaches of space really are. Just like a time machine, we are seeing things from billions of years ago, and it really makes one feel that the universe is a divine creation. But even so, there are gradually more and more people studying things in deep space such as dark matter and neutrinos.
I think this is why we never grow tired of seeking knowledge about this mysterious world we call "space." Outer space is fascinating for making humans do that. There’s something about it that stirs humanity’s spirit of inquiry. That’s what I like about space.
Q. What do expect from Japan’s space missions in the future?
My interest in what developments mankind will create and what we will be able to visit and see has no bounds. I’d like us to be really proactive, and if possible, go beyond the moon to Mars, Jupiter and elsewhere.
In the closing credits of the film, we present a brief photo history of Japan’s scientific probes, starting with the Pencil Rocket. I’d like us to launch more of these probes, say two or three a year.
Of course there are budget limitations and there may be various difficult problems. But the fact that HAYABUSA brought dust back from Itokawa is not just an amazing scientific achievement; I think it has touched the hearts of many of us. That’s why I want us to pursue space exploration more aggressively. Q. Please give us a message for the audiences who’ll be watching the movie. I believe that HAYABUSA is certainly not a complex film. It’s very easy to watch. The characters do use some scientific terminology, but that’s just like when an athlete or musician uses words that us laymen don’t understand. With this film I intended to accurately capture what the world of these professionals is like.
At the same time, I think it’s a very pleasant and heartwarming film, so I’d certainly like all kinds of people to see it: HAYABUSA’s fans, women, grandparents with their grandchildren, and everyone else.
(Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox)
